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About Me:
Big city girl living in a small town in Alberta, Canada. Loves all things creative and original. I'm very right brained. Attend a small United Church mostly for the music. Recovered alcoholic with 4+ yrs. sobriety. Challenged by clinical depression, an anxiety disorder and S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Married with 2 daughters in their 30s one of whom has many struggles of her own. Am a very active member and volunteer on the Women for Sobriety Online Forum.

Hello, my dear Razz,
Thanks so much for your kind comments and extra material on my post on Acts 20. It went a direction I hadn’t anticipated. Please allow me to give you a little background on that post, and I think I’ll paste this as a comment on the post as well. I had thought the post immediately before this one was the more inspired one, but I really had no idea who if anyone would read either of them, that would be in the Lord’s hand if the message was intended to reach someone.
Last night I couldn’t sleep. It was as though my head were spinning and my stomach churning. I had what seemed to me fragment thoughts that I didn’t even think made sense. Somehow they seemed to make sense, but only in fragments that I didn’t even think made a unified theme. Finally I got up and thought that if I write the fragments, I could go to sleep and sort them out the next day. When I started writing, my head quit spinning and stomach quit churning, and I didn’t seem to be writing fragments. I just wrote, and no thoughts about even editing. I think it was a little before 3:30AM that I posted on B’net, then it was a little after 3:30 when I got back to bed. When I got up and did my regular reading, I hadn’t much sleep, and thought I really wouldn’t do any more posting today because I felt bad doing my Bible reading when I didn’t even feel that my mind was ready to comprehend what I was reading, because I just didn’t feel fully alert. I always read about twice as much from the OT as from the NT so that I finish Malachi at the same time I finish Revelation. Without any real thoughts or intentions of posting, my NT reading was Acts 18- 20. I felt that it was notable to post Paul’s speech at Miletus along with no more than a couple of comments. But as I was focusing on what Paul was saying, some things from my early morning post intermingled, and I was saying much more than I had intended. I started to cut a lot of what I said, but somehow I thought, well Lord, if no one even reads it, that’s in your hands, or if someone takes note, I’ll just post it the way it is. I still thought my post immediately before it was more inspired.
As a child I had been involved in a very few Billy Graham programs (never one that he was at, but his team). I was too young at first to train as a counselor (but they still let me hand out programs or help with seating, etc.), but the last one I was at I was old enough and qualified. They always were in touch with inter-faith churches before they did a campaign and when things were set up an advance team would come to train the counselors. It didn’t matter what denomination someone was from as long as they were approved by their Pastor and the Scriptures and wording were consistent with most all believing organizations. I also remember being at a revival by one of the last great traveling tent evangelists, E. J. Daniels. He operated the same way with the advance team, and denomination was never a concern, except he always used a huge tent (I was a young boy scout, and it seemed huge to me. I helped with the folding chairs, and I was worn out.). They preached the Bible, and counselors were available from any denomination, and if anyone came forward that didn’t have a church home, I don’t care what denomination the counselor was, he was ready to offer assistance in helping them find the faith that seemed most appropriate or comfortable to them (of course he could always put in a plug for his church). The bottom line is, the revival may have seemed something like a mega-church, but the evangelist was concerned about bringing people to the Lord, and when the services were finished, the local congregations were generally strengthened. Now it would appear that these mega-church evangelists are not looking to just win people to the Lord, and certainly don’t seem to be concerned about strengthening local congregations, but in building up their own empire. I consider this to be a disgrace, and not in keeping with the Lord’s teachings.
Also you mentioned that some seemed to have moments of genuineness. I want it to be clear that I do not say that these preachers are not saved, or that they are not sincerely trying to do the right thing. But I believe they are sincerely miss-guided. I’m a sinner, and I can’t judge others. But I can still call myself a sinner, and call other sins- ‘sin’. People are so easily led astray. Sometimes people really need to sit back and take a serious, honest look at reality. I don’t know how many ways my theological concepts may be wrong, but I try to examine who I am and what my beliefs are, and constantly challenge them to test them. Saved people can be wrong and still be saved and sinners and still be saved. Preachers can be saved and honestly called to preach, and still be wrong, and still sin. People need to search for the TRUTH of YHWH.
Sorry- I got carried away. Love ya’, Steve